Photos of the Pie

Really, that's pretty much it.

Pie face

Pie on patio

Pie in the park

And the University Plant Center's cute little van:

That is all.

Sewing machine or racecar...

Yes, not only is the new old sewing machine named like a racecar, it also sews REALLY fast. Maybe it is a racecar in disguise. Who knows what it does when I am sleeping.

Toyota 5000 (racecar in disguise)

Honda 2000 (robot in disguise)

New old sewing machine

I know, its been a long time since I posted. And many things have happened. For one thing, I recently made a new addition to my...manufacturing department. Yes, I have a sewing machine. It is an ancient Toyota 5000. So ancient that I can't find anything about it on the internet. But its been serviced by Toyota, appears very durable, and it works well. Its actually very much like mom's old Husqvarna. It is large, metal, and beige. First order of business is to make a stuffed shrimp for my labmated. Then on to the full-body crayfish costume. I have already ordered the massive sheet of foam necessary. Did you know? Foam is very expensive, heh heh heh.

Notice the lack of photos. That is because my camera is out of commission. I'm still debating whether to send it in for repairs, or just buy a new/used one. It seems that what is wrong is this: the lens sucks in dust each time it retracts into the camera, where the dust settles and gets into the gears and wears them out. It seems to be a significant problem with cameras of this type, of various makes. So they might have to replace some gears or even the entire lens motor if it has become damaged. Hmm. I suppose I will go ahead and send it in. Worst case I lose the 25 pounds for having them examine it.

In the meantime, enjoy a couple photos from my cameraphone. These were the best, most of them turn out quite badly due to low light.

Two stuffed crayfish having a cuddle at work:

Poor, poor Carl. At least he did finally get a nice trip down to the JetSpray car wash bay.

Cute photos of guinea pigs!

Recently I became the primary caretaker of two baby guinea pigs! Well, more like teenage guinea pigs, heh heh. They are completely adorable and quite active, always running around, hopping, burrowing in the hay, climbing on their house, etc.

Young G-pigs in G-pig cage:

The extremely cute crested one (brown and white) is Ruby. She is named for her red eyes (and sorta red hair) and is the friendlier one. The one that looks kinda like a rat with no tail (black and white) is Connie. Connie is short for Conference Pear.

She is named that because she is pear shaped ('conference' is a type of pear). She is more easily frightened of the two, but she's getting more friendly with lots of hand feeding and petting.

Aww, so cute! Ruby is illegally cute when she eats:

Snow Sculpture Season 2009

As the snow continued, I decided to go out in the park at night (for the first time since last time it snowed - last year). Its usually very dark there at night due to the lack of ANY lighting WHATSOEVER, but with the cityshine reflecting off the snow, it had a pleasant glow. So, from 10-11:30pm Monday night I worked on building this massive snow lion!

With the Pie:

Front view:

Teh face (yeah...no eyes...):

One more:

Well, now the snow has become unmoldable, so other than making a few minor repairs to the lion over the past couple days I have not made anything else. It may snow again later in the week...

The groundhog was right!

Its Groundhog Day back home, and the famous PA hog has predicted more winter! Well, it is certainly true here - we have actual snow, INCHES of it, with a frigid next couple of weeks predicted. Virtually all the schools in the area were closed today, and we are to get more snow overnight (if we are lucky!) Needless to say, I've been enjoying the snow very much, with several frolicking sessions under my belt today alone. Here are some images from this afternoon.

Here, my neighbor helps out those who have forgotten what this white stuff is called:

Carl under his nice blanket of snow:


And here is Tasha sitting in a large snowball that someone made into a chair...rather odd, but interesting. Look at the happy people out enjoying the snow!


Yesterday was fun, too, I went for a hike/run on Ilkley Moor, which has large rock formations and is never too crowded, so Tasha and I can just careen all over the place to our hearts' content. It was lots of fun. No one threw up.

Here is the Pie, enjoying the scenery:


Here is myself, enjoying the scenery, and the fact that I remembered to bring tissues:


And here is the view from near the top, looking down on the town of Ilkley:


In other news, we are having a biologists' semi-formal masquerade ball, so I went and got a dress on Saturday. YES, it is MINT GREEN. I was fortunate enough to find it after only about ten minutes of shopping. Finding shoes took another ten minutes, heh heh heh. Looks like I forgot to put them on for the photo, however. Now I just have to make a mask of some sort.

Good thing...

...that my New Year's resolution wasn't to update my blog more often! Instead I resolve to complete the work for my PhD within the confines of 2009. Really, finishing in September would be ideal, but, I admit that is a bit unrealistic. Well, everything always works out in the end. In the meantime, I will work very hard. I have implemented a new daily schedule - the important part is that I wake up at 6am every day. So far so good. Also I refuse to allow any procrastination.

Photo time!

Goldfish at work (they are pets only), named Bob (yellow) and Dora (orange). Yes, they are named after the cartoon characters. My new labmate loves pets like I do, so we got some!

Here's a nice sunny day! It has been fairly sunny lately, maybe every three days or so? Look, shadows! That Tasha and I, obviously.

Photo of the Pie. Not much to add to that really.

Ah, now here we have something interesting. An early birthday present from a labmate. Notice the logo on the shirt.

Yes, it says "Cop inside" (as opposed to the original, which is Intel inside, by a computer microprocessor company, seen here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_Inside_Logo.svg). Heh, they know I secretly wish I were a cop - I suppose wearing my 'to protect and serve' shirt all the time is kind of a give away. Anyway, it is a great shirt - it even glows in the dark. Its actually very timely because I have been realizing lately that my 'protect and serve' shirt has disappeared! I think I may have left it in Prague. Alas. Well, I'll have to get a new one of those made up.

Nothing else to report, really, have just been very busy working! Maybe something will happen this week...